So it’s hardly surprising that Leh, Ladakh’s main city, has just been identified as one of two areas in India to become a “mega-destination” for “spiritual and wellness” tourism.

Along with Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh, Leh and its surrounds are the first to be designated for such development.

Subject to approval from the planning commission, the Ministry of Tourism is hoping to allocate 50 million rupees ($902,500) to develop Leh’s spiritual credentials.

The move is part of a five-year plan announced in April to develop 29 areas as mega-projects, each with a different focus, including eco-tourism and adventure.

Vishal Gagan, a director in the Ministry of Tourism with responsibility for northern and central states, says Leh has “immense potential” as a spiritual destination.

“We want to integrate all the destinations for spirituality in Ladakh so tourists can have a feel of all the spiritual sites and a holistic spiritual experience,” Mr. Gagan told India Real Time.

Improved information and links between religious sites would be part of the development, he added.

The latest available figures from the Ministry of Tourism show that the number of domestic tourists visiting Jammu and Kashmir, the northern Indian state where Leh is located, grew 8% between 2009 and 2010. Foreign tourist numbers, however, declined 11% over the same period.

According to a report on tourist activity in Jammu and Kashmir by IL&FS Infrastructure, commissioned by the Ministry of Tourism, Ladakh is the preferred choice of foreign tourists while Jammu attracts the largest number of domestic travelers.

Ladakh, in the east of the state, is the highest district in India, ranging from 8,500 to 25,165 feet. The Himalayan region in which Ladakh sits has long been venerated as the abode of the gods and explored by pilgrims in search of enlightenment.

Joanna Sugden for The Wall Street Journal

Ladakhi women celebrate the birth of Buddha at Hemis Shukpachu.

On a recent visit to Leh, we found ourselves inadvertently road-testing the area’s current spirituality and wellness package on a three-day trek encompassing monastery visits and numerous prayer wheel rotations carried out by our Buddhist trekking guide Stanzen Takspa. It also happened to coincide with the day that the birth, death and enlightenment of Buddha is celebrated in Tibetan Buddhism.

Our guidebooks advised at least 48 hours rest on arrival in Leh, as did the owners of our guesthouse; at these heights your heart beats a little faster and it takes a while to acclimatize to the thinner air. But after a short nap we were too tempted by the castle and monastery clinging to the mountainside overlooking the flat-roofed city, so we set off to explore.

The climb proved manageable but sadly when we got there around 4pm the monastery was shut. There was no information about its history, when it would be open or what there was to see inside. Since returning to Delhi, we’ve discovered that the Namgyal Tsemo monastery was built in 1430 by King Tashi Namgyal and houses a three-storey statue of Buddha and a number of ancient manuscripts. It opens during morning and evening prayers, when a monk comes to light the butter lamps. Hopefully the information for visitors to Ladakh’s beautiful buildings will improve if plans to make it a “mega-destination” get the go-ahead.

Boosted by our initial success ascending at altitude, we came back down to earth when advised by agents in Leh to choose the “baby trek” for our first foray on foot into the Himalayas. Because of limited time and experience, the three-day trek between the monasteries at Likir (11,480 feet) and Temisgam (10,500 feet) did seem the sensible, if humbling, choice.

Joanna Sugden for The Wall Street Journal

A stupa in Ladakh.

The journey through the Sham valley begins with a visit to the Likir monastery, with its imposing 80-foot golden Maitreya Buddha, the future Buddha, who is in the sitting position indicating he is awaiting his time to come into the world.

The monastery, built in the 11th century, is presided over by the Dalai Lama’s younger brother, Ngari Rinpoche, and houses 200 monks and a small museum.

There are 21 branches of this monastery in Ladakh but Likir is the root. During our visit at the start of the tourist season in June, it began to snow lightly. Undeterred, from here we set off to our first mountain pass along a cold-desert valley floor with rain closing in over the mountain peaks above us.

“They say Ladakhi weather is like Mumbai fashion; always changing,” said our ever-positive guide. He’s right. By the time we reached the pass 50 minutes later, we were in dazzling sunshine. What’s true of the weather can be said of the landscape, which is as stunning as it is various.

In four hours walking on this section of the trek, we didn’t encounter another soul. Early in the season at least, the pressure of India’s 1.2 billion population isn’t felt in the mountains of Ladakh.

We stayed the night in a Ladakhi home-stay in Yangtang village, where we looked out from picture frame windows to the snow-covered Zanskar Range and drank the curious local butter tea. We awoke to the sound of the owner of the house doing his puja on the day when the birth, death and enlightenment of Buddha are celebrated by Tibetan Buddhists.

A half-day trek took us to our next staging post, Hemis–Shukpachu village, where we met a group of women gathered to light lamps in the monastery and drink tea and eat biscuits in commemoration of the day.

The final spiritual site, which was perhaps the most unexpected and spectacular, came on the last day of the trek. Having set off at the crack of dawn, we saw the sun rise on giant carvings in the red rock face above us. The inscriptions in Tibetan declaring the Buddhist mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum” were, according to our guide, engraved hundreds of years ago. Looking at the words invokes the blessing of the god of compassion, our guide told us as he wandered on, repeating the mantra under his breath.

Joanna Sugden is freelance journalist living in Delhi. Before coming to India in 2011 she spent four-and-a-half years as a reporter at The Times of London, covering religion and education. You can follow her on Twitter @jhsugden.

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